


Rise

by IdleLeaves



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Established Relationship, Injury, M/M, Non-Career-Ending Injury, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 02:40:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13940850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IdleLeaves/pseuds/IdleLeaves
Summary: Yuri doesn't even see Otabek fall. He hears it, though; hears the spectators gasp, hears the thud of something - someone - striking the boards.





	Rise

**Author's Note:**

> For the Otabek/Yuri square on this week's Synchronised Screaming bingo card.

Yuri doesn't even see Otabek fall. He hears it, though; hears the spectators gasp, hears the thud of something - someone - striking the boards. Yuri launches himself forward to the closed ice-side door, barely avoiding a collision with Otabek's coach as he reaches the boards and leans over - etiquette be damned - looking to the one corner he hadn't been able to see from back beside the curtain.

A strained hush has fallen over the crowd. Otabek's music continues to play, but he's lying awkwardly on the ice, making - it seems, from where Yuri is standing - little effort to get to his feet. "Get up, get up," Yuri says under his breath, over and over, and wishes Otabek could hear him.

JJ appears beside him; he'd skated just before Otabek and just after Yuri. "What happened?" he asks, and if there's concern in his voice Yuri doesn't care to hear it.

"Shut up," he snarls, and waits for Otabek to rise.

* * *

It doesn't happen.

The rinkside medics are slow to respond. Yuri wants to yell, to curse and swear and order them to get the hell out there and do something; instead, he yanks his blade guards off and steps onto the ice.

He pushes off from the sidelines and heads straight for Otabek. Almost immediately someone skates up behind him, their blades slicing through the ice. A quick glance over his shoulder reveals it to be JJ. Yuri doesn't react, this time; JJ isn't important enough, right now, to bother.

Otabek sits up - at last - just as Yuri reaches him. Yuri drops down to one knee. He doesn't speak, doesn't ask questions; he just pulls one of Otabek's arms around his shoulders - on the other side, JJ does the same - and, together, they help him rise. Otabek can only manage to put weight on one leg, but with both of them holding him, it's enough.

The crowd breaks their silence and applauds as Otabek is helped from the ice.

* * *

At the hospital, Yuri tries to be patient. He won't allow himself to be removed to the waiting room, but he does try his best to keep out of the way. Otabek says little as he's examined and x-rayed, and when the doctor returns to the room with the films and puts them on the lightbox, the fracture is there, clear as day.

Otabek accepts the diagnosis better than Yuri would have, in his place; the break is clean, at least, and he'll be able to avoid surgery. His unsmiling calm is helped along by ample amounts of painkillers; he's hazy with them, now, a light sheen of sweat on his forehead.

"I'll miss the rest of the season," he says, once he and Yuri are alone in the room.

"Fuck the season," says Yuri, and brushes Otabek's damp hair back from his face.

"And part of the off-season, too." Otabek's brow furrows, and his mouth twists.

"Don't cry," Yuri threatens. "If you cry I'll punch you."

Otabek's eyes are dry; his response is a barely-there husky laugh. "As long as you don't punch me in the leg," he says.

Yuri immediately reaches out and hugs him. Hard. Afterward, he curls onto the empty bed beside him, still wearing his free skate costume, hems folded up over his boots.

* * *

In the morning, when Yuri wakes, Otabek is sitting up and talking to JJ, who stands beside his bed with one hand shoved in his pocket and the other holding a paper cup of coffee. There's a similar cup - of tea, Yuri supposes - on Otabek's bedside table.

They both glance over when Yuri yawns; he waits for a sarcastic comment from JJ but it doesn't come. Rather - and surprisingly - JJ takes it as his cue to leave. He squeezes Otabek's shoulder and tells him he'll talk to him soon.

"What was he doing here?" Yuri asks once he's gone.

"He's a friend, Yuri," Otabek says, and Yuri isn't about to start an argument over it right now. Instead, he sits on Otabek's bed and holds his hand until the nurse arrives with his morning dose of painkillers.

* * *

"Your ass better be back on the ice by next season," says Yuri, on the day of Otabek's discharge from hospital. "At a hundred percent, too."

"Oh?" Otabek says. He's still in some amount of pain, but it's manageable now, and he's getting around well enough on crutches that he can handle the plane ride back to Almaty. Yuri will join him there, after Worlds, for just a few weeks before he has to return and fling himself headlong into off-season training. "One hundred percent?"

"If you're not at a hundred percent then beating you won't mean anything."

Otabek's lips curve into a smile. "How do you know I won't be beating you?"

"Not a chance," says Yuri, and kisses him.


End file.
